HKH DRR Hub 2026

Background

The Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region, home to 10 major river systems in Asia and a critical source of freshwater to nearly 2 billion people, is also among the most hazard-prone and climate-vulnerable regions on Earth. Increasing frequency and intensity of floods, landslides, glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), droughts, and extreme weather events are placing communities, infrastructure, and ecosystems under growing stress. These risks disproportionately affect remote, disadvantaged populations, especially women and people with disabilities, underscoring the urgent need for inclusive and locally grounded disaster risk reduction (DRR) approaches.

The 2026 Hindu Kush Himalayan Disaster Risk Reduction Hub (HKH DRR Hub) is co-organised by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and the Secretariat of the Chinese National Committee on the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (CNICIMOD), hosted by the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), with support from the Building Adaptation and Resilience in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (BARHKH) Technical Assistance supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the “Building Capabilities for Green, Climate-Resilient and Inclusive Development in the Lower Koshi River Basin” (HI-GRID) project, supported by the Australian Government.

The HKH DRR Hub was launched in 2024 as a voluntary regional platform to accelerate understanding, information-sharing, and action on mountain hazards, while strengthening the science–policy–practice interface. Since inception, evolving from the Koshi Disaster Risk Reduction Hub (KDKH), founded in 2018, into a broader regional platform, the HKH DRR Hub has convened stakeholders from across ICIMOD’s eight Regional Member Countries (RMCs) — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan — alongside international partners, United Nations agencies, development banks, civil society, and community organisations.

Regional value proposition: Beyond knowledge exchange, the HKH DRR Hub adds distinct regional value by moving partners towards common regional standards and interoperable risk information, transboundary early warning and anticipatory action, a shared pipeline of risk-informed investments, and coordinated financing regional public goods that no single country or existing platform delivers alone. This provides the basis for continued engagement by ICIMOD’s Regional Member Countries and partners, including multilateral development banks.

Evolution of the HKH DRR Hub:

The 2026 theme reflects a growing global consensus that sustainable and effective resilience can only be achieved when local actors such as communities, local governments, and grassroots institutions are empowered to lead, design, and implement solutions. This marks a deliberate progression from the first two editions:

•  2024 established the foundation -what do we know about hazards and how do we warn communities;
•  2025 asked who should invest and how connecting risk knowledge to financing pipelines;
• 2026 closes the loop – who actually delivers resilience on the ground.

Building on the Bangkok Declaration for a Resilient HKH (2025), the 2026 Hub will operationalise its six regional recommendations at the local level:
i. bridging risk data to decisions for resilient investment;
ii. harmonising anticipatory action under EW4All;
iii. operationalising Loss and Damage readiness pipelines;
iv. embedding Gender Equality, Disability and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) as a core risk governance principle;
v. mobilising risk-informed and inclusive DRR finance; and
vi. anchoring regional policy commitments through the Hub’s four SFDRR-aligned Thematic Working Groups (TWGs).

The 2026 programme translates these commitments into community-led delivery, decentralised financing, and locally grounded TWG workplans.

The 2026 theme aligns with global commitments under the Sendai Framework for DRR, the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals (particularly SDG 11 and SDG 13), and emerging global consensus on localisation of humanitarian and development action.

The Hub will highlight four aspects:

• Community-based disaster risk management: Successful models, tools, and knowledge systems led by local actors
• Decentralised climate finance and governance: Mechanisms to channel resources directly to sub-national institutions and communities
• GEDSI as a core risk governance principle: Mandating GEDSI integration in risk assessments and early warning
• Local leadership: Policy and institutional frameworks that enable genuine local leadership

Objectives of the 2026 HKH DRR Hub:

• Facilitate multi-stakeholder dialogue to demonstrate how multi-hazard risk information is translated into real-world decisions and locally led action
•  Advance a shared regional approach to risk-informed action and investment, including validation of the MHRA framework, alignment on anticipatory action standards, and strengthening science–policy–practice linkages
• Build consensus on a jointly developed HKH regional programme/ HKH DRR action plan 2027-2030 for resilience, integrating MHRA, early warning systems, anticipatory action, and nature-based solutions, with clear pathways for implementation and financing

Expected Outcomes

• Shared understanding demonstrated, through multi-stakeholder dialogue, of how multi-hazard risk information is translated into real-world decisions and locally led action, with concrete examples and lessons captured from across the HKH
• Regional validation of the MHRA framework, alignment on common anticipatory action standards, and strengthened science–policy–practice linkages underpinning risk-informed action and investment
• Consensus reached on a jointly developed HKH regional programme — the HKH DRR action plan 2027–2030, integrating MHRA, early warning systems, anticipatory action, and nature-based solutions, with agreed thematic working group priorities and clear pathways for implementation and financing
• Pledge by HKH DRR Knowledge Hub members of the regional programme proposal as offering clear, demonstrable value for regional DRR cooperation and a basis for continued collaboration and resource mobilisation